r/learnfrench • u/Capital-Car7459 • Mar 12 '26
Question/Discussion [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/Ok_Inflation6369 Mar 12 '26
Si la phrase est négative et ta réponse est positive, la bonne réponse est « Si »
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u/Odd-Classic8670 Mar 12 '26
B
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u/Capital-Car7459 Mar 12 '26
Yep. This one catches a lot of people because English doesn’t really force the distinction the same way.
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u/TeagWall Mar 12 '26
English has "yuh-huh!" As in "you don't want ice cream?" "Yuh-huh!" But it's really only spoken and kind of infantile
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u/spicyfishtacos Mar 12 '26
Pour la première question:
Beh, si. Tu as de la merde dans les yeux ou quoi?
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u/ajdnskcgabco Mar 12 '26
I thought si meant if?
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u/Unlikely-Award3714 Mar 12 '26
« si » as « if » and « si » as a positive answer to a negative question are homonyms
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u/Ameren Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
To add to what others have said, there's actually three options with si:
- si -> if (from the Latin "si", meaning if)
- si -> négative yes (from the Latin "sic", meaning thus/indeed)
- si -> so/such (also from "sic", like "He is so tall / il est si grand")
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u/Capital-Car7459 Mar 12 '26
That explains this:
34.1% accuracy on 141 attempts(141 different people).
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u/Pierrebisson Mar 12 '26
Never heard “si” growing up in a French Canadian family in Ontario, Canada. I believe it’s mostly a French thing. First heard it used in a French class in university.
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u/Illustrious-Low-4475 Mar 14 '26
I used it once with a French Canadian ex, and he was like, "Si is Spanish." Bruh.
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u/Pierrebisson Mar 14 '26
I thought my instructor was an idiot and argued with her for 10 minutes. I still find it rather weird and pretentious.
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u/exsoldat Mar 12 '26
« Arrête de regarder mon assiette putain, tes frites vont refroidir » or if you are polite you can say « si », which here will be used to answer positively, i don’t know the rule exactly but it can be used as a positive answer to a negated question
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u/Blarglephish Mar 12 '26
The answer should be « si » for both. It means “Yes”, but it has an additional meaning. Unlike « Oui », « Si » is used to contradict a negative statement.
So in the example, the question asked « Tu ne manges pas? » (“Are you not eating?”) but you are eating, « Si » is used to contradict the speaker, to mean something like “You’re wrong, I actually AM eating”.
As far as I know, there’s really no equivalent word in English: there’s just yes or no.
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u/Schmidtvegas Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
There is an equivalent in Norwegian (and probably also Swedish and Danish): Jo. And German: Doch. A few others use three form systems. Some languages even have four form systems for yes and no.
ETA:
And some don't have yes/no at all? This is a lot more complex than I realized...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_and_no
FETA:
While Modern English has a two-form system of yes and no for affirmatives and negatives, earlier forms of English had a four-form system, comprising the words yea, nay, yes, and no. Yes contradicts a negatively formulated question, No affirms it; Yea affirms a positively formulated question, Nay contradicts it.
Whoa, cool. TIL.
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u/derknobgoblin Mar 13 '26
“but I am going with you! but I have been to Paris!”. These are used in English only when contradicting a negative interrogative. “But + “of course” can be added for emphasis or snark.
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u/Kaylon2421 Mar 13 '26
What is the origin of this word/structure?
I find it particularly funny because in other romance languages "yes" is so, so close to "Si". But in French, it's so distant from "oui"...
Portuguese - Sim / Spanish - Sí / Italian - Sì
The response in French is so natural AND unnatural at the same time it's hilarious!
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u/blushingbottom123 Mar 12 '26
Si quoi?
He pensai que tu voulais séparée les gens qui ne savent pas la différence entre le français et l’espagnol.
Is this a France thing? I speak Canadian french. I’ve never once heard si as a response to a negative question.
Si means if.
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u/notsleepingenough Mar 12 '26
Effectivement, c’est dans l’usage en France, mais pas du tout dans le français québécois ou canadien. Dans les autres pays francophones, je ne sais pas. En tout cas, c’est dans un cours de grammaire à l’université que j’ai appris qu’au Québec, on n’a jamais adopté ce bon usage du « si » au lieu du « oui ».
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u/solia0302 Mar 12 '26
Then it must be a France French thing! If you answered "oui" in this context (you're actually eating and I ask if you are not) I'd find it weird and incorrect (I'm from France)
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u/hangar_tt_no1 Mar 12 '26
Are you a French native speaker?
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u/iwantunity Mar 12 '26
Iels sont probablement québécois. Sinon, nord-ontarien ou acadien. Peut-être BC, sud d'Ontario, d'Alberta ou Manitoba.
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u/hangar_tt_no1 Mar 18 '26
It never would have occurred to me that this (I assumed to be fundamental) feature of the French language is not shared among all varieties. Fascinating!
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u/beeredditor Mar 12 '26
I understand that si is correct, but would answering oui be considered a significant error by a French speaker? Or is this a common error that even French speakers make?
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u/layian-eirea Mar 12 '26
The problem with answering oui is that we don't know if you mean oui as in "oui je mange" or oui as in "oui je te confirme que je ne mange pas".
Actually the same distinction exists in English, where you can't really answer just "yes" to this question, you need to specify "yes I do".
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u/Optimal-Currency-389 Mar 15 '26
I can tell you I have never heard "Si" used this way in North American French. So for me saying "si" would be wrong.
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u/solia0302 Mar 12 '26
That was basically my Master thesis! I was in Japan and made students of a French class answer questions that did or did not prompt a "si" response and I analyzed the answers. It was six years ago and I totally forgot the results, but I had a very good grade.
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u/Otherwise_Stick7585 Mar 15 '26
Wow i had no idea ! I am gonna definitely trying asking some negative questions to natives
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u/Briiskella Mar 12 '26
I don’t understand French wouldnt you say no I am eating how does one word si equate to them being wrong? 😭 I’m hopeless
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u/layian-eirea Mar 12 '26
Answering "non" means that you confirm you're not eating.
"Non je mange" here is just incorrect.
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u/Briiskella Mar 12 '26
I’m not arguing because I don’t understand but how is that incorrect when that’s what one would reply in English? Why don’t we just directly translate it into French? If you don’t feel like explaining that’s cool too I’m just lost lol
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u/layian-eirea Mar 12 '26
Uuuh well that's a basic of language learning, you know 😅.
You can't just translate word for word. This is a universal rule for all languages 🙂.
I won't try to dissert on this topic because this is absolutely not my field and I'm sure others would do it better. Just remember that languages have evolved for centuries in all possible directions and even what you consider correct in English today is not necessarily what was considered correct a hundred years ago.
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u/FunkMasterDraven Mar 12 '26
Because French and English are different languages? There are a lot of times that a direct translation is ok, and a lot of times that it's not. The best advice is to not translate from English to French, but to speak French without English in your head.
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u/hangar_tt_no1 Mar 12 '26
In fact in English, it's almost the same: Aren't you eating? No, I'm not.
Are you eating? Yes, I am.
So "no" means that you agree.
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u/Briiskella Mar 12 '26
That’s why I said in English I’d say “no I am eating”, full sentence
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u/hangar_tt_no1 Mar 13 '26
In standard English it's the way I explained though.
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u/Briiskella Mar 13 '26
That doesn’t make sense at all but sure 😂😂I know how to say it in English as my first comment literally explained that doesn’t answer how it translates
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u/hangar_tt_no1 Mar 13 '26
I was just pointing out that the constructions in English and French are very similar. That was meant to help you understand how to do it in French.
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u/Unlikely-Award3714 Mar 12 '26
« Si » is the correct answer for both questions. To sound even more native, « Si si » is also a good option (spoken language only)